Need advice on handling kids...

AND No, it's not about how to handle kids at home. I can watch Dr. Phil or Supernanny for that :mrgreen:

I recently applied a job to help in shooting at kids in an open-environment (okay, a mall) for Christmas. I'm suppose to be interviewed tomorrow - even though I cited in my CV that I don't have lots of experience in shooting people, only know handling D-SLR and a bit of Photoshop :blushing: .

Anyway, I'm a bit scarred that the person who interview me might ask how am I planning to handle children of potential clients. I don't want to be caught off-handed, so I'm rather hoping the kind folks here can offer me a few tips Most of what I know is based on books and magazines, I must add. John Hedgecoe's is especially helpful. However, I think the members here are probably more practical than people who wrote those books :hail:.

My task is supposedly just to photograph kids with Santa to capture "Santa Magic". Equipment is provided - the camera is supposedly rigged to a PC which can be instantly printed off, and they will provide lighting equipment too.

Just treat them like you'd treat any kids! Be friendly and smile a lot, carry some good props to entertain them with and most of all make good eye contact with the parents first to reassure them. Be confident, assertive and you'll get the best out of them you can.

Definately have ways of holding their attention. Maybe you could say that you'd have a couple of toys that mum/dad could wave around to get their attention. This would also get the parents more involved - which is always good I reckon... what parent doesn't love to make their little kid smile!

I also find that shooting loose is the way to get a great portrait. It takes a bit of getting used to - you could always use a tripod - but hand held without the camera in front of your face is better for you to pull faces and keep them entertained.

Most of my shots miss using this technique, but it's definitely how you get the good uns.

They might ask you how you'll handle pressure, LOL! As a parent, I can tell you that often the mall-Santa-picture things are VERY crowded. A lot of the people go so their kid can see Santa but do not want to buy pics--they may be impatient if you are prolonging things for pictures (so might all the people waiting in line too!). A lot of kids cry, freak out and generally become hysterical when they have to get near Santa. I thought you might wanna know that so you can be prepared.

They just called. I got the job The interviewer was extremely impressed because I was able to handle a D-SLR, and also those bits and pieces of photo-editing skills All of those skills which I picked up from books and TPF

A very big thanks go to the folks of TPF for being ever so helpful! Let me see who: robhesketh, meysha, kevinR, ev13wt, michelejo... big thanks to all of you for posting here! Thanks also go to Digitalmatt for being so helpful when I first got here (not to mention he brought me to the world of RAW in my flowershow thread!) There are of course many others that I couldn't recall...

Anyway, mighty thanks!

As for michelejo, I'm very sure that advice will come in very handy. Thanks in advance